Mexico's Next Interior Secretary Will Push For The Legalization of Recreational Marijuana

The initiative comes as a way to eradicate the violence that has bred from the war on drugs which former president Felipe Calderón began in 2006

By Sofia Cerda Campero
Updated Jul 9, 2018

In this June 11, 2018, file photo, Mexican jurist and former member of the Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation (SCJN) Olga Sanchez Cordero speaks during an interview in Mexico City.
RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

A week ago, leftist candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador claimed a landslide triumph as Mexico’s next president. With 52 percent of the votes, he not only won the election but his party, National Regeneration Movement, took a majority of seats in the Senate and five out of nine governorships.

In the days following the election, López Obrador and his team have been determined to show the ways in which the country will enter “Mexico’s fourth revolution.” The presidential cabinet, which for the first time will have equal representation of men and women, is mainly constructed by academics who have publicly announced their determination to bring a peaceful change: violence, corruption and impunity are the main topics on the table.

Olga Sánchez Cordero, 71, a Mexican jurist who has served as a member of the Supreme Court of the Nation, will be the first woman to take the interior secretary position. As part of this transformation, Sánchez Cordero, an advocate for abortion and same-sex marriage, has begun to push in favor of the recreational use of marijuana and eventually opium poppies. This initiative, which includes ending the prohibition of marijuana cultivation, comes as a way to eradicate the violence that has bred from the war on drugs which former president Felipe Calderón began in 2006.

With over 160,000 people murdered in the past 12 years and thousands of disappearances and unresolved cases, the next interior secretary strongly stated that the time has come for Mexico to take these matters into account.

“Canada has already decriminalized, as well as almost half of the states in the United States. What are we thinking? Why are we killing ourselves when North America and many European countries have decriminalized?” Sánchez Cordero said in an interview with W Radio on Wednesday.

Additionally, the jurist stated that prevention and rehabilitation programs would come along with the decriminalization. She pointed out, however, that this would not apply to anyone underage.

“We are going to try to use the opium poppy for pharmaceutical purposes. Pharmacies buy a lot because they use it to make morphine, as there are many illnesses that require it for treatment,” she told the radio station.

López Obrador has yet to publically show his stance on the legalization of these substances. However, Sánchez Cordero stated that he is not opposed to the idea and that they will further explore this possibility that she believes could be a path to obtain peace in the country.